Still Not in Control
by Wilting Rose 08
Summary: Sequel to OoOH, set after HBP. It has been nearly twenty years since the last of the twelve graduated, but they are still united. Some have fallen, some live in near infamy, but all have with one common goal. Same pairings as before, plus some new ones.


-1Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns everything you recognize.

Author's Note: **Events in this timeline definitely follow the books up until the end of Book Six, and most likely some of Book Seven. I will (hopefully) inform you in the story of any changes I make in the timeline. Fred and George are the oldest Weasleys. Ginny is still the youngest, there's just not room in the timeline for the other three, unless I'd make them younger.**

Still Not in Control

Chapter 1

Harry sat morosely at his place at Gryffindor table. It was almost time to get on the train to go back to Kings Cross, and Privet Drive. As everyone stood to leave, McGonagall approached him.

"Potter, you will be leaving with Remus for Grimmauld Place. Your trunk is already in my office. The password is 'pine needles.' Remus is waiting for you."

Harry nodded, waving Ron and Hermione on, before making his way out of the Hall and up the stairs.

Dumbledore had only just died, and McGonagall had moved into his tower. The entire Order accepted that Dumbledore was dead, but Harry wasn't so sure. After all, Snape was fully capable of casting silent spells, so it was fully possible that he had cast something else. Of course, that would mean that Snape wasn't guilty of murder, or at the very least had been acting on orders that most probably weren't Voldemort's.

Harry shook his head as he approached the gargoyle, as if to dislodge those thoughts. Sighing, he said the password, and rode the stairs to the top. Remus was waiting, just as McGonagall had said, standing with his trunk. They flooed to Grimmauld Place together.

Harry spent most of the rest of the day exploring the house. The Weasleys were going to be there as soon as Ron and Ginny arrived at Kings Cross, but Hermione wouldn't be able to visit until later in the summer. He heard the door slam just as he was coming out of Sirius' old room.

"Hey, mate, you up there?" Ron yelled, running up the stairs.

"Yeah," Harry called back, looking down. "Come on up, I was exploring. I just finished with Sirius' old room, and was going to go through the other up here. I guess its Regulus'." He glanced at the door, and did a double take. "Ron, hurry! I think I might have found R.A.B.!"

"Really?" Ron asked excitedly, bounding up the last few stairs. "Regulus? I would think he would be too young to get through all the traps you said You-Know-Who had set up."

"We can at least check," Harry shrugged.

As they entered the room, Kreacher popped inside. "What is you doing in Master Regulus's room?" he questioned suspiciously.

"Kreacher," Harry began, deciding that Hermione's approach might work best. "There was an old locket downstairs that no one could open. I know it was supposed to be tossed, but you wouldn't by chance have happened to save it, did you?"

"Yes, Kreacher saved it," the house-elf said, eyeing them mistrustfully.

"May we see it?" Ron asked eagerly. Suddenly, Kreacher burst into tears.

"It was Master Regulus's locket!" he bawled. "Kreacher let the no-good-dirty-thief, Mundungus Fletcher get it!"

"Did it look like this?" Harry asked, digging out the locket that had held the note. Kreacher nodded. "How did Master Regulus get the locket?"

He proceeded to tell them the tale, about how Voldemort needed to borrow a house-elf, and he had to drink the potion and get dragged to the bottom of the lake. He told them of how he went back with Regulus later, and Regulus got pulled under after telling Kreacher to protect the locket.

"Do you think you can find Mundungus?" Harry asked. Kreacher nodded slowly. "Here you are," he continued, handing over the locket he'd been holding. "Please, take it. I'm sure Master Regulus would have wanted you to have it." Kreacher only sobbed harder. He stayed on the floor like that for roughly twenty minutes before popping out of site, the locket worn proudly around his neck.

Harry and Ron simply stared at each other in shock. Neither had quite expected _that _when they'd walked in.

The next morning was quiet. Kreacher wasn't seen at all around the house. Remus questioned Harry and Ron on it, but, when they told him they knew where the elf was, he dropped the subject.

Later that day, during dinner, Mrs. Weasley made an announcement. "Tomorrow we'll be getting a few houseguests." The teens nodded, assuming the guests to be more Order members.

The next morning, Neville and his gran turned up with Susan Bones, who had decided to stay with her boyfriend and his family for the summer, as she didn't really have anywhere else to go anyway. That, in itself, wasn't extremely odd. What appeared in that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet was a slightly different matter.

"'Lucius Malfoy Escapes Azkaban?'" Harry read off in disbelief, glaring at the front page of the newspaper Arthur Weasley had propped open in front of him.

"Hmm?" Arthur asked, slightly distracted. "Oh, yes. I was attempting the crossword. Quite challenging, never was any good at it."

"How can you not be a tiny bit concerned?" Ron asked in disbelief.

"He is one person, Ron," Arthur said patiently. "All of the other Death Eaters remained in their cells. I think, in light of the recent events, only one escape is nearly remarkable."

"But he's You-Know-Who's right-hand man!" Ron protested.

Arthur said nothing, turning back to his paper, and presumably his crossword puzzle.

That night, Harry had been sleeping peacefully when a sudden noise woke him. He shot straight up, but, when he was unable to pinpoint the sound, laid back down. It was at that point he realized how thirsty he was. Sitting up, he made his way across the room, intent on going down to the kitchen for a glass of water. That was when he heard the noise again.

He crept slowly towards the stairs, peering over the railing. His jaw dropped as he realized what he was seeing.

Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, and Walden McNair were leading two people through the front hall. As he watched, Augusta Longbottom ran up, pulling one figure into a tight embrace. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley soon followed. Lucius Malfoy, oddly enough, didn't look too much the worse for his year in Azkaban, only a bit tired.

"How did it go?" Arthur asked in a hushed voice.

"Fine," Snape replied gruffly. "Very few guards were on duty at Azkaban, and the ones that were succumbed to the sleeping potion fairly quickly. The few Dementors that remained were driven off fairly easily. I never thought I'd be glad that most of them were roaming about for Voldemort. From there, we went straight to St. Mungo's. It was amazingly easy to get in there. Not many people were in that particular ward, as most of the people there aren't actually a danger, if they even need to be there at all. Alice and Frank were heavily sedated, as we suspected. It will be at least a few days until we know how much damaged was actually done. No lasting damage was done with the original Cruciartus Curses, however, fifteen years of sedation isn't exactly healthy for anyone."

"We went immediately to Malfoy Manor after," Lucius continued, scrubbing his eyes as if trying to stay awake. "Narcissa and Draco are arriving tomorrow, in plain view, as to make it obvious I'm not with them."

"Lucius, you should go to bed," Molly suggested gently. "You must be exhausted."

"I'll be fine for a bit," he reassured her. "Really, right now I'd rather have something to eat."

"Harry, what are you doing there?"

Harry jumped at the sound of Remus's voice, quickly turning. "Remus, why are Snape, Malfoy, and McNair here?" He eyed him suspiciously, as if expecting him to start firing Unforgivables at any moment.

"Harry, they aren't who you think they are," Remus said. Harry looked doubtful. "It's a long story. Maybe we should go somewhere a bit more comfortable." He started back to his room, but Harry still looked wary. Sighing, Remus made a show of tossing his wand on his bed before leading Harry into the drawing room.

"It started in your parents' sixth year. I suppose one of the first things you need to know is that James and Severus never really hated each other, although Sirius and Severus despised each other for most of their school years. I believe it came from being so different, yet still being forced to share the same room." Harry gave him a questioning glance. "Oh, that's right. They began school at Durmstrang; that's how Durmstrang's sleeping arrangements work, two to a room. Guess there's more you need to know than I realized." Harry glared. "To be fair, this would be much better coming from someone who was more involved, and they planned on telling all of you the story tomorrow, once, apparently, Narcissa and Draco arrived."

"Okay," Harry said, knowing little more than he had a moment ago. Of course, Remus did tend to ramble when nervous, so he could at least be fairly reassured that Remus was truly Remus. "What started?"

"The Ministry devised this scheme. Well, I'll say the Ministry for sanity's sake, as very few people know who was really behind it. They said that, in the dark times we were in, the oldest pureblood families should be doing their part to ease the strain. So, they took the six oldest Dark families, the Blacks, Snapes, Malfoys, McNairs, Rosiers, and Meadowes, and the six oldest Light families, the Potters, the Diggorys, the Prewetts, the Boneses, the Longbottoms, and the Weasleys, and decided to pair them up."

"But then, how did my mum and dad end up together?" Harry interrupted.

"I'm getting to that," Remus said patiently. "Anyway, Severus and Elizabeth got along fairly well, once Severus got over his self-doubt." At Harry's blank look, he clarified. "Snape now, but Diggory back then."

"Snape's _married_?" Harry exclaimed.

"Yes, but it's a bit hard to explain," Remus said. "At least out of order. Molly and Lucius, understandably, had a few major blow-outs, but the threat of sending them somewhere alone together usually quieted them enough, at least until they got to be friends. Dorcas and Arthur had met before, and became fairly good friends."

"Dorcas _Meadows_? Wasn't she killed by Voldemort?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"Yes. He was very determined to recruit her, as she was a very skilled witch. When she turned him down, he killed her outright, so as not to give her a chance to escape and join the other side. Walden and Amelia tolerated each other, but were never particularly fond of each other, more like indifferent. Alice and Frank, well, you've seen the results. Both of them made it long enough to have a child, unlike Beth and Severus. They were fairly close from the beginning. Then there was your father and Sirius."

"Wait. They were paired _together_?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Remus replied. "At the time, it was seen as an excellent solution, as, though Sirius's brother could be designated as heir to the Black family if need be, or Sirius could leave everything to a favorite nephew or niece at the time, for the Potter family to continue, they would have to adopt. Of course, the baby's DNA could be altered, so it was, technically, theirs. Potions and charms have since been invented to allow the process to happen a bit more naturally. After all, it's not exactly _natural_ for two men to have a baby. Of course, even muggles know it's _theoretically_ possible. I mean, not in the current state, but all a uterus really is, is an incubator."

"Remus!" Harry exclaimed.

"Sorry," Remus said, flushing. "_Anyway_, they would have either had to publicly pick a side, by adopting a baby from a Dark family, or adopting one from a Light family."

"Why couldn't they adopt a muggleborn?" Harry asked.

"Heirs usually don't adopt older children. The ritual can only be performed on a young child, and, typically, Wizarding children needed to be adopted are few and far between. There is usually some family member that takes them in, in almost every circumstance. However, it does happen. By the time muggleborn children know they have magic, really by the time they start showing _signs_ of magic, it's too late to adopt them. It's said that Hogwarts records all children born with magic, but the only person Hogwarts allows to see the list is the Deputy Headmaster or Headmistress. So anyway, muggleborn children must stay with their parents, go to a muggle orphanage, or, if they're lucky, get adopted by someone who doesn't _need_ an heir to their bloodline. It might be a younger sibling, or a far-removed branch of the family, or a muggleborn couple. That's actually one of Voldemort's grievances against Dumbledore."

"What do you mean?"

"Voldemort claims that Dumbledore knew he was at a muggle orphanage, and knew early enough to do something about it."

"Did he?"

"No one really knows for sure. If anyone would have known a magical child had just been abandoned in a muggle orphanage, it would have been Dumbledore. He was, after all, Deputy Headmaster at the time, and had fairly recent dealings with the Gaunt family, from the recent trials. Merope had never been to Hogwarts, so she had no magical friends, and none of her family would be any help. So, if anyone magical did know, it would probably have been Dumbledore. However, in his defense, Tom was born in the winter, December 31, to be exact, so Dumbledore wasn't looking at the list. When he would, come about June, He would still have about a month to act. However, the name Riddle wouldn't stand out to him, most likely. Gaunt might have, in fact probably would have, but Riddle is a muggle name, and addresses don't show up until the letters are ready to be sent, so the Deputy knows who to send them to."

"So you're saying that it all depends on who is telling the story?" Harry asked.

"Basically. Of course, that's how most wars are, in the beginning. It's only afterwards, when the winners have rewritten history, that it's presented with a definite good and definite bad side. It will, most likely, be the same with this war. If Voldemort would win, Dumbledore, the Ministry, the Order, would all be presented as people who tried to stop change, who tried to prevent wizardkind from reaching its full potential. If Dumbledore, the Ministry, or the Order would win, it will be presented as an uprising that had to be stopped to protect us from discovery, and to protect all of our citizens, or something to that effect."

The sun was rising now, and Remus hadn't actually gotten much of the story told. However, despite the early hour, Molly was soon calling everyone down to breakfast. Harry, fairly wide-awake, stumbled down with the rest of them. Snape, Malfoy, and the Longbottoms were nowhere in sight.

"We need to tell you something," Arthur said, sitting down at the table. Almost as soon as the words had escaped his mouth, the doorbell rang. "Um, Molly, do you want to get that?" She nodded before making her way back out of the kitchen.

Low murmurs were heard, before the sounds of two people climbing the stairs were heard. "It will be just a moment," Mrs. Weasley smiled, walking back into the kitchen. "They just wanted to check something, then they will join us down here."

Harry didn't think that was a particularly good idea, especially if the two people were the two people he expected they were. All of the other teens simply shrugged, unconcerned, before going back to their breakfast.

Roughly five minutes later, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy swept into the room, followed closely by Severus Snape.

Author's Note: Hopefully the next update will be relatively soon. Granted, at my update pace, 'relatively soon' could still be next month…


End file.
